1. Technical Field
The invention relates to the storage of information. More particularly, the invention relates to an anti-item for deletion of content in a distributed datastore.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In recent years, the need for reliable and efficient storage of large amounts of complex data has increased dramatically. Indeed, the need for extensive storage seems to have outpaced the remarkable advances made in storage technology, e.g. the increasing capacity and decreasing cost of hard disks. As a result, storage of truly large amounts of data on a single server is in many cases impractical, and a distributed approach is desirable. Moreover, even in those cases where storage can be handled by a single machine, a distributed datastore may offer superior reliability and more efficient load handling.
In many distributed datastores, a single data item may be stored in one or more locations, i.e. on more than one server. In some such systems, the location(s) at which a data item is stored is determined by an insertion procedure in which the inserted item is propagated through a network of servers to the one or more servers that eventually store the data. Such an insertion procedure presents challenges if the need for deletion of data items arises because it may be inconvenient or computationally expensive to determine directly the locations at which a particular data item is stored.
It would be advantageous to provide an efficient apparatus and method for deleting items within a distributed datastore. In particular, it would be advantageous to provide an apparatus and method of deletion that uses an already well defined procedure for insertion of data.